Anytime there is a close election, especially in a race with as many votes as the Minnesota U.S. Senate race, the entire process becomes error prone and tainted.
With 3 million votes and only a few dozen or few hundred separating the candidates, no one really knows how this is going to turn out. The problem is that every error becomes highlighted and important.
- In Clay County 1,074 people voted, but only 1,069 ballots were found for the recount. In St. Louis County 1,649 voted, but only 1,646 were available for the recount. In Washington County 1,464 voted and 1,449 were turned over for the recount.
- Thousands of ballots are tossed out because of mismatched signatures. A sprained wrist, a broken arm or any number of disabilities could cause a mismatched signature.
- Both sides are making exaggerated challenges to the ballots. This has caused the Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to request both campaigns to crackdown on the challenges.
Neither side is doing justice to democracy.
The Coleman camp has made more challenges:
The Franken camp is challenging ballots like these:
For its part, the Coleman campaign has started a PR campaign to win the election before the votes are counted. They claimed 32 Coleman ballots were lost in a car truck (not true) and have developed a website claiming Franken is stealing the election.
It is all madness. They may as well assume a tie and do a coin flip, because that is what is about what it has become.
